Following indications yesterday that more accounts were being granted access to the Diablo III beta test, the Diablo III Website announces the beta will indeed be opened this weekend to anyone with a Battle.net account for stress testing. The open portion of the beta will begin at 3:00 pm EDT today and will run through Monday at 1:00 pm EDT. The accompanying FAQ explains how this will operate, and notes that while Korean players cannot participate, they will be holding a separate invitation-only event in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The invitation only closed beta will continue as planned until May 1st. To get a head start, you can download the client now from Battle.net.

Verno wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 11:40:Despite claims to the contrary by the usual suspects it will take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you take your time.

Anyone that says it will take under 2 hrs to explore everywhere, listen & read all quest and flavour text, loot everything, etc in the beta is a lying sack of shit.

I've beat the beta in 4 player coop in 45min. We raced from beginning to end, killing as little as possible, looted only what was in front of me and Blue, talked to nobody, skipped all quest text/info, didn't train the Blacksmith, etc.

It's a great way to have zero fun at all.

While I'm generally a completionist myself, an extra 30 mins isn't going to change anyone's perception. End of the day the chunk of the game they put up for a beta, is short in comparison to the full game. Not sure why you're getting your I <3 Blizzard gstring in a twist about it.

I would so buy an I <3 Blizzard gstring if they sold them on the battle.net store... Just saying...

Verno wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 11:40:Despite claims to the contrary by the usual suspects it will take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you take your time.

Anyone that says it will take under 2 hrs to explore everywhere, listen & read all quest and flavour text, loot everything, etc in the beta is a lying sack of shit.

I've beat the beta in 4 player coop in 45min. We raced from beginning to end, killing as little as possible, looted only what was in front of me and Blue, talked to nobody, skipped all quest text/info, didn't train the Blacksmith, etc.

It's a great way to have zero fun at all.

While I'm generally a completionist myself, an extra 30 mins isn't going to change anyone's perception. End of the day the chunk of the game they put up for a beta, is short in comparison to the full game. Not sure why you're getting your I <3 Blizzard gstring in a twist about it.

Everything isn't voiced? Can you go into more detail on what you have to read? I despise that fluff text that they throw up on simple quests as if we're here to read a novel.

So many MMO's do this and I don't get it. Keep it short and sweet. 3-4 lines to explain what is needed and voice the rest.

This is one of the things SWTOR did right, getting missions was pretty entertaining...sadly they forgot to spend any time on the actual missions...feels so stupid to spend all that time on a mission briefing then it's just a fetch quest.

Why not split that effort so you had shorter briefings and better mission content?

I think swtor would have been a much better game if they'd stopped making the content (storylines) at level 30 and went back and improved those missions up to that point. In the IA storyline there was an event that happened around 30 that I felt was a good place to conclude the story and then it dragged on for 20 more levels. Would have been a better game with higher quality content but less missions/planets.

Krovven wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 12:39:Anyone that says it will take under 2 hrs to explore everywhere, listen & read all quest and flavour text, loot everything, etc in the beta is an awesome bag of sunshine who I adore

What a surprise No one said it would take less than 2 hours to do every single possible thing in the beta. There's a difference between doing every single thing and the average completion time. Maybe you like to do everything and it takes you longer, ok wonderful. I don't like to rush but likewise I don't need to explore every single nook and cranny nor stop dead in my tracks to listen to voice over exposition. Besides, as I said most people will get multiple playthrus from different character types which blurs what most people will really remember as their run through.

Whether it's an hour and a half or two to most people isn't really going to make a difference either. People say its short because its short, the extra 30 minutes isn't likely to change their mind. Being short isn't necessarily bad and the length is on par with previous Blizzard tests.

Is there a non-downloader file to the Windows installer? I can't download through my employer's firewall.

Do you mean a full size installer or just the installer that starts their little DL client?

Alamar wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 11:55:I got at least 2-3 hours of 'enjoyment' out of my initial play through, because I'm all about 'defeating the fog (of war)', so if you play like that, and kill every mob and (nearly every) breakable item along the way, it could take that long...

I'm glad to see someone else that's all about battling the uncovered map parts. That's my one kind-of-disappointment with D3. Since everything is served server-side, including single player, I lose connection for 30 seconds and get disconnected... BAM, all my maps are reset. Same goes if you quit and come back. Especially bothersome that overland maps do it too. How can I erase all the fog-of-war if you keep resetting it on me damn it!? *shakes fist*

Verno wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 11:40:Despite claims to the contrary by the usual suspects it will take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you take your time.

Anyone that says it will take under 2 hrs to explore everywhere, listen & read all quest and flavour text, loot everything, etc in the beta is a lying sack of shit.

I've beat the beta in 4 player coop in 45min. We raced from beginning to end, killing as little as possible, looted only what was in front of me and Blue, talked to nobody, skipped all quest text/info, didn't train the Blacksmith, etc.

As with, every single thing in life... Your 'mileage may vary'... Don't need to be snarky about again disagreeing with other people's also-nearly-useless estimates...

Eh I feel pretty comfortable with my estimate being the average for most people based on both here and the b.net forums, you're free to disagree and if your mileage varies then so be it sir I was being (preemptively) snarky with the 1-2 posters who come into every Blizzard topic to defend their honor and so on as they seem to think people saying it's short is somehow negative. Far from it, it's fun and that's why people lament its length

I'll give it a go just to chuckle at 10 year old game mechanics and 6 year old graphics.

The game mechanics are solid, old or otherwise. The graphics are pretty much what you would expect from a modern Diablo game, I'm not sure what else you were looking for man. There are plenty of other things to criticize, your choices seem odd.

Eh I think we flogged the real money AH and always on DRM to death already. I'm more interested in seeing if it's any fun or still the same ol overated click click click click fest that most Blizzard titles are.

the diablo games seem to me like UBER-Gauntlet or something... its all somewhat mindless spamfest action and endless button mashing, except for the PHAT LOOT!! collecting; which never did it for me either, since i already have a firm grasp on my pleasure center ...

not really a huge fan of this series, but i will probably play it for a week or two

As with, every single thing in life... Your 'mileage may vary'... Don't need to be snarky about again disagreeing with other people's also-nearly-useless estimates...

Eh I feel pretty comfortable with my estimate being the average for most people based on both here and the b.net forums, you're free to disagree and if your mileage varies then so be it sir I was being (preemptively) snarky with the 1-2 posters who come into every Blizzard topic to defend their honor and so on as they seem to think people saying it's short is somehow negative. Far from it, it's fun and that's why people lament its length

I'll give it a go just to chuckle at 10 year old game mechanics and 6 year old graphics.

The game mechanics are solid, old or otherwise. The graphics are pretty much what you would expect from a modern Diablo game, I'm not sure what else you were looking for man. There are plenty of other things to criticize, your choices seem odd.

Verno wrote on Apr 20, 2012, 11:40:Despite claims to the contrary by the usual suspects it will take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you take your time. It's fun but fleeting, just enough to give you a feel for the basics.

You can do some replays to up the play time of course. My favorite class was the Wizard followed closely by the Barb. Monk was pretty cool as well though hes balanced a little weirdly.

As with, every single thing in life... Your 'mileage may vary'... Don't need to be snarky about again disagreeing with other people's also-nearly-useless estimates...

I got at least 2-3 hours of 'enjoyment' out of my initial play through, because I'm all about 'defeating the fog (of war)', so if you play like that, and kill every mob and (nearly every) breakable item along the way, it could take that long...

My second playthrough, with my boss (his first), was all about following the 'path of least resistance', and it was over so quickly... And he commented, when the 'you beat beta' line came up, 'wtf, that's it?'... I giggled (yes, like a schoolgirl)...